Atlas Fisher was born in Upshaw, Mississippi circa 1882. He was educated at the Tuskegee Institute and the Hampton Institute, studying public speaking before receiving a trade certificate as a machinist. Pearl Fisher, born Pearl Reagan, was born in Mississippi in 1884. Atlas Fisher and Pearl Reagan met and exchanged letters between 1901-1903, while Fisher was living in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Reagan was living in Yazoo City, Mississippi, taking a degree at an unidentified university. After Fisher and Reagan married, they settled in Hinds, Mississippi. Atlas Fisher died in 1923, and Pearl Fisher eventually settled in Marion, Indiana, where she died in 1984.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists entirely of the correspondence of Atlas and Pearl Fisher. Correspondence includes courtship letters exchanged between Fisher and Reagan between 1901 and 1903, as well as letters of condolence to Pearl Fisher at the time of Atlas' death in 1923. The 1901-1903 correspondence primarily concerns Fisher and Reagan's courtship, but also includes description of friends and family, work and classmates at their respective universities, as well as descriptions of everyday life in the South. The 1923 correspondence contains letters from friends, family and business associates of Pearl Fisher, expressing condolence after Atlas' death.